Iowa Lottery gives raffle game another try

The Iowa Lottery is giving a raffle game another try and hoping for more luck with the weather. Lottery vice president, Mary Neubauer says the first raffle game launched in the spring of 2008 — timing that turned out not to be so lucky.

Neubauer says the raffle sales started just at the time when the tornadoes and flooding hit the state and that had a “big impact” on the raffle says. The new raffle is called “Pot O’ Gold Raffle” and the winner will be drawn on St. Patrick’s Day.

She says the lotter raffle concept is the same as any other raffle, as there is a limit of 120,000 tickets sold, with a top prize of one million dollars. Neubauer says the odds in the lottery are very high compared to other lottery games because of the limited amount of tickets sold. There will be one second prize of $100,000 and 100 prizes of $100 each.

Tickets cost $20 and are sold at the same terminals as the Powerball or Hot Lotto tickets. Neubauer says you have to keep your ticket to be eligible to win. Nuebauer says the tickets will be on sale until March 13th, unless they sell out beforehand.

Neubauer says what they’ve seen in other states is tickets sell well, and then in the final weeks of the game the tickets sell at a really fast pace as people realize the deadline is coming up. The drawing again is scheduled for St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.

If all tickets are not sold, prizes will be awarded based on a percentage of total tickets actually sold and will be lower than the set prize amounts.